The flashlight beam instantly stopped making the odd pattern when Aurora landed in front of the river next to Nike. The striped bat breathed out in relief the moment she saw him and Henry gave her a bright, encouraging smile before he hopped over the gently glowing water toward where he sensed two children. They huddled together in a nook, and he heard their hearts hammer frantically.

"It's safe now!" he called.

"It's safe!" echoed Nike, and only when she spoke did one of the girls poke her head out tentatively.

"Nike?" At the sight of him, the girl with the head of dark curls and the skin of an Overlander cried and jumped back.

"Hey, it's alright," Henry said with a crooked smile. "I know I look scary but I'm really only trying to scare the bad guys, I swear."

"Hi, you!" squeaked another voice, and before he could bat an eye, a smaller form had squeezed out of the nook, past the older girl, and hopped right into Henry's extended arms. "You make me fly!"

"Boots!" the other girl—her and Gregor's middle sister, Henry assumed—cried but poked her head out again.

"Hi, you!" Henry echoed at Boots in his arms, ruffling her curls. "Not right now, I'm afraid. Maybe later . . . when your brother's not looking."

Boots giggled and patted the fur on his collar, then her attention was caught by the commander crest on his chest. "Oh! Shiny!"

"Yes, shiny." Henry gave her a big smile. "But you can't have it. That's my shiny."

Boots gave a disappointed "Oh!" but Henry had already turned to Nike.

"Okay, so . . . what the hell are you doing here?"

"We were chased off course by a pair of gnawers," the striped bat mumbled, dragging her claw across the ground. Only then did Henry see that a cut across her leg still oozed blood. "They wouldn't give up the chase until I escaped into a series of tunnels that led here. I hid the small ones in the crevice to fight them."

When Henry sensed Nike was close to tears, he sat Boots down and fetched a clean cloth from his backpack. "You were amazing," he said to her, running a hand over her ear soothingly. "You saved their lives."

When he tightened the makeshift bandage and Aurora approached her other side, mumbling something in flier, Henry felt Nike's tremble lessen.

"You hurt?" Boots waddled over to her as well and placed her small hand on Nike's cheek. "It's okay. It's okay."

"It really is," said Henry. "Or, it will be."

Nike gave them all a meek smile. Henry and Boots stroked her fur until she had calmed entirely, and the outcast gave Aurora a grateful nod when the golden bat lay down close to Nike.

"As heartwarming as all this is, we probably shouldn't linger," snarled a new voice from further down the tunnel. "The battle is pretty much over; your call to surrender and be spared worked wonders for their will to keep fighting. But still."

"Good." Henry gave Ripred a wave before he twirled around to the nook again, where he still sensed Gregor's other sister. "And, agreed. Hey, you! I don't bite—well, not unless you're a big, bad villain. If Gregor told you otherwise, don't believe him."

Only then did the other girl poke her head out again. "You're the Death Rider," she whispered, her large, teal eyes on him.

"I am! And I'm here to save you, as I do," he replied with a smile, extending his hands toward her. "Let's go. I don't want to explain to your brother why you two aren't in Regalia when he returns."

The girl inched forward; her hands, which clung to the stone rim, trembled.

"He may look like he could eat you, but so do I," snarled Ripred behind him. "Have I tried that yet?"

The girl—Henry wagered she was maybe seven or eight—giggled and finally took a deep breath, then leaped down into his arms. "Let's get you home," said Henry as he carried her over the river, too late realizing that he had just referred to Regalia as their home. "Well . . ." He shook his head. "You're Gregor's other sister, right?" She nodded. "What's your name, then?"

"She is Lizzie!" Boots cried, waddling over to them with extended hands. As soon as she reached Henry, she latched onto the fur of his boots. "She is Lizzie. I am Boots." She pressed her face into the fur on his leg. "And you are . . . Henry!"

Boots beamed up at him with so much pride for not only remembering his name but also pronouncing it correctly that Henry even forgot to worry about it for a second.

Her sister—Lizzie, apparently—stiffened in his arms. "Henry?" she asked. "But there was already a Henry in the Underland, Gregor said." Her eyes once again brimmed with worry. "On their very first trip, Gregor said there was a Henry. And he was—"

"I am that Henry, and I am also the Death Rider . . . It's a long story," Henry cut her off, deciding it was, at this point, obsolete to conceal his identity. "We can tell you the story on the fly. But we must really get out of here."

"What about Gregor?" whispered Lizzie after a short pause. "Where is he?"

"Fighting the Bane, I wager," Ripred replied.

"He was chased out of the Plain by the Bane," Aurora confirmed. "Most likely, though, he meant to be chased. His sword was ignited."

Lizzie clutched Henry's collar so firmly that her knuckles shone white. "No!" she cried. "You have to go after him!"

"Gregor is capable of fighting his own battles," Nike mumbled. "It is a prophesized battle, this one. What we must do is get you two back to Regalia."

"But Gregor!" Lizzie cried. "What if he's out there and needs our help? We wouldn't know, would we? If he's lying somewhere and hurting! We wouldn't know! Where is the harm if we go check? Just check to see if he—" She broke off. "We heard that roar," she whispered. "It was louder than the others. So loud that the stone trembled. Was that him? The Bane?"

No one replied, and Henry felt Lizzie shake so hard that it became difficult to breathe for her. "Hey, hey," he rocked her, fighting unease. "Okay. Okay, you know what? We will check on him. Ripred can go check on him."

"Me?"

"You can trace his scent," Henry replied. "Aurora and I wouldn't know where to go."

"We know where to go," said a voice from the shade, and everyone whipped around toward a narrow crevice on the far side, close to the tunnel from which Ripred had come.

The only reason Henry didn't pin the two shiners that squeezed out moments later to a wall with his dagger to interrogate them was that he was still holding Lizzie.

"We saw him, yes," the second shiner added. His behind blinked red and blue, agitated. "The warrior. And the Bane too."

"Oh, not you two again," Ripred snarled. "You better have something actually useful to say, or I may decide that it is time for a little snack." He bared his teeth.

"Hey!" the female hissed. "Is that any way to greet old comrades?"

It was only then that Henry understood they were the same shiners they had traveled with twice already. "Old cowards, more like," he hissed. Then he remembered what they had said earlier, and his grudge evaporated to make way for concern. "What about them? The warrior and the Bane?"

"Hm, do you think we should tell them, Zap?" Photos Glow-Glow turned to her, rubbing his forelegs.

"Fofo!" Boots cried when she finally looked away from Nike and spotted the two. "It's Fofo!"

Henry and Ripred snorted simultaneously, and the shiner's butt turned a dark shade of crimson. "I am called Photos Glow-Glow," he said emphatically. "Not that you can remember such an elaborate and pristine name."

"Fofo . . ." Boots squinted, then put her little arms on her hips. "Fofo Glo-glo."

They all—Henry, Ripred, the bats, and even Lizzie—broke into hysteric laughter and the shiner hissed. "You know what, Zap? I think we should tell them nothing. They don't deserve to know that the warrior boy was losing, the last time we saw him."

All laughter instantly abated and before Photos Glow-Glow knew what hit him, Ripred had pinned him to the wall with his sharp talon. "I am very tempted right now to forget that your kind tastes horrid and really have you for dinner."

Both shiners gasped; their lights blinked agitatedly. "Fine! Fine!" Photos Glow-Glow hissed. "He is not far from here. Maybe ten minutes flight . . . if you take the long way. Your fliers will have to." He scrutinized the group.

"Will you go?" asked Lizzie, and Henry sat her down carefully. The moment her feet touched the floor, she ran to Ripred and, to Henry's eternal surprise, locked her small arms around him. To Henry's even bigger surprise, Ripred let her.

"Yes," he said after a pause. "Ripred, you take the girls back to Regalia."

"I thought you wanted me to go after the boy?"

"Well," Henry eyed Nike and Aurora, "I did, and then I remembered that I can't actually show my face there. That, and I also have to reunite with Luxa and Death when we are done here. Aurora and I will go with the shiners and then meet Luxa, and you and Nike will return to Regalia with the kids."

Ripred eyed him pensively. "That could work. If you can stand their company."

"I will follow your example and threaten to run them through if they get too obnoxious. But they must show the way."

Ripred giggled, and the shiners blinked, offended. "Why we even help them is what we should ask ourselves," mumbled Zap, but nobody minded her.

"You will save Gregor?" Lizzie disconnected from Ripred and looked up at Henry with round eyes.

"I'll do my absolute best." He gave her an elaborate salute. "And my best is pretty damn good."

"Quit showing off and let us depart." Aurora nudged him.

"Depart to spite yet another prophecy," said Ripred.

"As I do," replied Henry with a grin. "Maybe I should add that to my list of titles: The Spiter of Prophecies."

"As soon as he here is done showing off at last, we will return your brother safely," Aurora said to Lizzie with a side glance at Henry, who grinned.

Gregor's sister smiled tentatively. "Okay," she said after a pause. "Okay, Aurora the flier and Henry the Death Rider."

***

They couldn't have flown for much longer than five minutes, but as soon as they had departed, anxiety overtook Henry. He didn't even know whether Gregor was in any real need of his help, but every second that passed felt like one too many anyway. The thought of having to explain to Gregor's sisters that he had failed and that their brother wasn't coming back suddenly terrified him more than any physical danger.

"Over here!" Photos Glow-Glow fluttered higher and higher; Aurora beat the loaded air with her wings to ascend alongside him. "The screeches came from over here," the shiner cried. "They were so loud that I woke from my sleep."

"Aren't you a poor soul? I woke from mine too!" Zap nagged.

"Oh, but you napped for several hours before that. This was my first bit of sleep in—"

"If you two do not shut your traps RIGHT NOW, I will pin you to the wall with my sword and leave you there for decoration!"

Upon Henry's irritated cry, the two shiners quieted immediately. Photos Glow-Glow's light switched from orange to blue, and Zap flew an annoyed circle, but Henry didn't pay them or their whining any mind.

"Thank you," mumbled Aurora, and Henry hummed approvingly, but all his perception was directed forward. They were flying as fast as they could, and he was still tempted to tell them all to hurry more.

As soon as Aurora turned the next corner and followed Photos Glow-Glow out into a vast cave with an array of dripping rock formations, Henry sucked in a breath. Aurora stiffened and put on her wings, overtaking the shiners, who darted apart, letting out a string of curses. But neither Henry nor Aurora paid them any mind. Their attentions were caught by the scene below.

Even before Aurora could properly touch down on the plateau, Henry leaped off her back and managed to land on his feet. Then he sprinted, his heart hammering out of his chest with fear. He dropped to his knees and slid the last few yards on the slippery stone surface—slippery, naturally, and with freshly spilled blood. Only when Henry made out two heartbeats in the mangled mess of three bodies and found the Bane's massive form still with death, he breathed out in relief.

When Aurora dropped beside him with a gasp, Henry had already scrambled up and drawn Charos. He hacked the Bane's jaw into pieces, as he had done with Gorger and Ripred in the past. His massive teeth, which were almost twice the size of Mys, broke off, and Ares' wing was free.

In the shiners' light, Henry saw that the flier's bone was crushed and the tissue around it a bloodied, shredded mess; it would need the hands of skilled surgeons to ever look like before. But they had surgeons in Regalia. Ares would fly again, he thought, and left the flier to Aurora and the shiners to pull free from under the Bane's massive paw. Henry dropped back down and pulled Gregor out of the pile.

"Shit."

Henry didn't even need the shiners' light to discern that the boy was worse off than his flier; a large, bloody hole, not unlike his own old stab wound, gaped in Gregor's stomach. Henry hastily ripped away the shattered breastplate and pressed the hem of his shirt into the wound. Hot, wet blood pulsed from it, staining his hands crimson, and Henry cursed again.

"You DUMBASS!" he yelled; his voice echoed from the walls eerily, but he couldn't bring himself to care. "I thought you had dropped your plans to die! Don't you know that Luxa will kill you if you actually let that prophecy dictate your death? Don't you know that I will, too?"

He shook Gregor, but the boy didn't react. His quick, almost enraged heartbeat under Henry's hand was the only confirmation that he was still alive. Henry decided then and there that Gregor wouldn't die today; he'd be a Spiter of Prophecies too. No matter what it would take.

"We have to get the dumbasses back to Regalia immediately!" he yelled and tore off the hem of Gregor's shirt to tie it around the injury tightly but haphazardly. "They need the care of doctors, or they will not live." Henry hoisted Gregor up into his arms and stood. "I am not letting you die," he hissed. "Not today and not until you and Luxa have at least three kids and I can be the universally admired, dashing uncle that I was always meant to be. Got it?"

Gregor didn't stir, but Henry deluded himself that he had understood anyway. He took a step toward Aurora, who had already instructed the shiners to carry Ares, and waited for Henry and Gregor.

He loaded Gregor onto her back but then turned around one last time, taking two steps to retrieve Gregor's sword from the Bane's chest. With one tug, he pulled it free, then bowed to pick up one of the Bane's teeth that he had hacked off.

Stuffing the tooth into his belt, Henry bolted back to Aurora and stuck the sword into Gregor's sheath. Only then did he notice that the second one—the dagger sheath—was empty as well. He raised his head but then decided that he wouldn't go back for Solovet's dagger. It wasn't as great as he had once thought, anyway.

***

If the flight here had seemed irritatingly long, it was nothing compared to the trip back. Every second stretched into eternity; all Henry could do was clutch Gregor and listen to the boy's heartbeat. The boy's in his arms, and the flier's behind him. Two individuals whom he had dismissed two years ago. Whom he would have sacrificed for his deluded vendetta against everything that was too weak to fight back.

When Aurora finally darted out of a narrow tunnel into an open cave, he immediately sensed a flier take off and dash toward them, somewhere ahead.

"Death!" Henry cried, and moments later, Thanatos' silhouette appeared beside Aurora. On his back, there was Luxa—no longer tied on. Her mouth opened—Henry presumed to snap at him for his trick—but when the shiners came into view and she caught her first glimpse of Gregor, it fell shut again and she stilled to ice.

Aurora and Thanatos landed in the middle of the cave, and Luxa slid off Thanatos' back as soon as the flier touched down. "Gregor?" she asked tonelessly, taking a tentative step toward them.

"He lives," assured Henry, carefully mounting down with Gregor still in his arms. "The Bane is dead, but the warrior lives . . . as he should. Not for much longer, though, if we do not get him back to Regalia and to a doctor."

"And Ares?"

"His wing has been shattered, but from what I can tell, his injury is not life-threatening." Henry walked over to the shiners, who had laid out the large black flier beside Aurora. "He will live. They both will."

"You two?" asked Thanatos suddenly, squinting at the shiners. "Do we know you?"

"I am he who is called Photos Glow-Glow," said the shiner haughtily. "And she is Zap. And, just so you know, we expect to be paid generously for all the work we are doing here."

"In cake, preferably," said Zap.

"Personally, I will request cream and pudding," replied Photos Glow-Glow.

"For yourself!" hissed Zap. "But not for—"

Before Henry could move, Thanatos had bared his teeth. "Shut it, or you will never eat anything ever again."

Henry gave his bond a grateful nod, then turned to Luxa. "How do we get them back to Regalia?" he asked and walked back to Aurora, lifting Gregor onto her back again.

"We fly. It isn't far from here."

"No, I mean—Aurora cannot carry you all. Do we take the shiners—?" At that very moment, he noticed the lights had disappeared. "Did they just—?"

"They said that we are ungrateful and unworthy," mumbled Thanatos. "They went that way." His bond nodded toward a crevice too tight to follow, in which Henry could still see the fading glow of the shiners. When the last light faded, he felt Luxa's grip on his arm. Henry wrapped an arm around her shoulder, squeezing reassuringly, and cursed under his breath.

"Aurora, you—"

"I cannot carry Ares as well as all of you," the golden bat mumbled apologetically. "Not all of you."

"Shit."

"Henry, please," Luxa said quietly. "You and Thanatos must help us."

"I cannot go to Regalia!" he hissed and Luxa's grip on him tightened.

"I will not allow them to harm you. I will not! I swear!" Luxa paused. "The only one who might still harm you is I, for what you did to me before this battle. But we will decide what to do about that later."

All his inhibitions and fears about ever going back to Regalia flooded Henry at that moment, but he bit them back. Henry watched Aurora help Thanatos heave Ares onto his back and felt Gregor's blood on his hands. Tightening his arm around Luxa's shoulder, Henry suddenly knew it—what he would do. That his protests weren't genuine. Not with what was on the line. Really, at this point, he was just wasting precious time.

"Let's go."

***

The great wall of Regalia came into view much quicker than Henry had anticipated. When Aurora soared over and he found the enchanting city of his childhood stretching beneath them, he stiffened.

Lights sparked in the stone structures that stretched almost as far as he could see now, but not nearly as many as he remembered from the last time he had seen this view. Many lay in ruins, and he made out only a few passersby on the streets. Everyone moved quickly, hastily, as though frightened of staying out in the open for too long. They did not look up and recognize Aurora's golden coat, and Henry thought they should all be grateful for that.

It wasn't the same view that he remembered. Not unblemished, unbroken, sparkling, and gleaming, brimming with the comfort and security of light. Of home. But Henry hadn't been here for so long that his brain painted over the view, stabbing the old emotions into his heart and making the war-ridden city beneath into the magnificent one he remembered. The city that he still liked to remember occasionally, though not for too long. Not for so long that he started missing it.

Only now that it really stretched before him, he couldn't escape the emotion anymore. This wasn't a homecoming. This wasn't home. No matter that every fiber of his body screamed that it had to be.

But it wasn't. Because the last time he had seen this view—his eyes found Ares on Thanatos' back, who flew close behind—he had been a different person. He had been Henry the Prince. Henry, who had flown in and out of his own city whenever he fancied it, who had played dice and card games with the guards and made faces at the servants behind their backs. Who had . . . left his city behind to go on a quest of which he had known that it would end with his own betrayal.

Henry wiped his face angrily, and yet his vision kept blurring. He wasn't that Henry anymore. He wasn't Henry the Prince or Henry the Traitor. He was—

A pair of arms encircled him from behind. Luxa leaned her head on his shoulder, and for some reason, the reminder that she was there made things worse.

"You do not need to do anything to avenge yourself anymore," Henry said to her. "Making me come here is worse than anything you could have done."

"Is it really that horrible?" she said after a while.

"I am not the same Henry I was when I left here two years ago. Not the Henry to whom here was home. To whom this would be a homecoming."

Luxa's hands around him clenched tighter. "I hate you sometimes, you know?" Henry didn't say anything, so she continued: "When you say things like this, I hate you. Or, so I tell myself."

"You know that I—"

"I know," she cut him off, "that you are not the same Henry you were two years ago. But I am not the same Luxa either. Not even Regalia is the same. And yet it is still home."

Henry had no response. There were no words to describe the swirling, suffocating emotions the sight below evoked in him. He clutched the still-unconscious Gregor tightly and allowed Luxa to hold him. For the last time? He chased the thought as soon as it surfaced. This wasn't the time to—

Before he could truly sink into the emotional maelstrom, the fliers had already closed in on the palace, and then he blinked, and then he was there—in the High Hall. The floor was meant to be spotless, Henry thought. It was polished daily . . . was it not?

The Hall lay in shatters. Deep cracks and rubble covered the floor, and nobody was in sight. Henry dismounted, like in a trance, still tightly holding Gregor.

"To the hospital," Luxa urged and Henry nodded. He took his first step and halted. The hospital . . . He scanned the numerous exits and, to his horror, wasn't entirely sure where to go anymore.

"Here!" Luxa called and darted past him.

"Wait! Someone is coming."

Luxa froze at Henry's cry and watched a person step out of the exit she had aimed at.

"Vikus!" she exclaimed, and Henry had seldom seen her sprint at someone so joyously. His own heart skipped a beat. He couldn't move, only watch Luxa fall into her grandfather's arms. Her grandfather . . . Henry couldn't swallow the lump in his throat when an image of the last time he had laid eyes on this face flashed before him. He had . . . He hadn't . . .

"Luxa," the old man whispered breathlessly, staring down at the spindly teenage girl with the golden crown in his arms. "Luxa, Aurora, it is you . . . It really is . . ." Even from where he stood, more than ten yards away, Henry saw that Vikus' cheeks were wet with tears.

"Yes, it is me," Luxa called.

"It is us." Aurora approached Vikus' other side, and he looked up at the golden bat, then raised a hand to stroke her face.

"But Vikus," cried Luxa, "you must help us! It is about Gregor, he—"

"Yes, I know," Vikus cut her off, running a hand through her hair soothingly. "Solovet told me everything. You are safe now. You are safe. You will never be in such horrid danger again. Never again."

Only then did Vikus look up. Henry readied himself to open his mouth, to approach and say something—anything—to the man he had missed so much more than he had ever assumed he would. To hand over Gregor to Vikus and then leave as he had wanted to. But then Vikus' eyes met Henry's, and he froze to solid stone. Because what he found in those eyes—which he had remembered as always gentle, even when looking at him—was an uncharacteristic, unexpected, and honestly frightening fury.

Henry recoiled and his mouth dropped open as a single line from what Vikus had said to Luxa just now repeated in his head: Solovet told me everything.

"No—"

He didn't know what he had wanted to say. There was so much to say and no time. There was no time. Because Vikus cut him off: "Seize them."

In retrospect, Henry didn't know whether he could have defended against the dozen guards that flooded the Hall on Vikus' command if he hadn't held Gregor. If he hadn't been rendered immobile by the ice in Vikus' eyes. He knows exactly who I am, Henry realized. He knows because Solovet told him. Henry's identity, and who knew what else?

Then, four bulky guards closed in on him, and Gregor was ripped out of Henry's arms. As they carried the Overlander off, Henry was restrained, almost lifted off his feet in the guards' iron grip. From the corner of his eye, he made out that the same was done to Thanatos. His wings were wrapped in a heavy chain, just as a pair of iron cuffs fell shut around Henry's own wrists.

He hissed and twined, then screamed, but it was far too late. Luxa's desperate cries met his ear; she protested, begged Vikus to stop, but then someone else stepped at Vikus' side, and Henry felt the last of his hope drain. Because the one by Vikus' side was Solovet. No longer in armor, she wore an unblemished white robe, and her silver hair cascaded down her back in a pinned-up braid. She was dressed as a victor, but her eyes were dead.

"Thank goodness you were here to seize him. You have saved us all today," she said to Vikus. "Who knows how many more he would have made to suffer if we had not intervened."

"NO!" cried Luxa, but Solovet only looked at her with pity.

"I'm afraid it is worse than we anticipated. Let us hope the doctors can synthesize a cure for this affliction of the brain. Perhaps we should send someone to gather air samples from the land where she was held captive?"

"Luxa, dear, it will all be okay," soothed Vikus, even as she fought him. Even as she banged her fists on his chest and wailed, all he did was smile melancholy. "We will take you all to the hospital, dear. It is for the best; you must believe me."

"NO! NO!"

Nobody paid her any mind. Even Aurora did not fight when a pair of guards lifted Luxa to carry her after Gregor, in the direction of the hospital. She followed after them wordlessly but looked back again and again. In her eyes, Henry saw his own unadulterated terror.

"HENRY!"

It was the last he heard of Luxa before her voice fell silent and they hoisted him up roughly, by his cuffed arms.

At that moment, Vikus' head swiveled around to him. "You could not have left us alone?" The old man spoke in a voice that sounded a hundred years old and a hundred miles away. "Even after all you did, you could not have just left us—her—alone?!" His voice cracked, and his hand flew up to his eye, wiping at it.

"We will find out why," Solovet said quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "What matters now is that Gregor and Luxa are safe and alive, but if it will bring you peace, we will find out the "why"."

"You must." Vikus took one large step forward, and Henry saw so much desperate pain in his eyes that he could barely hold his gaze. "That you had conspired with Gorger was hard enough to believe, but . . . with the Bane? To harm your own cousin!" Vikus' voice broke and he sobbed. "She is your cousin!" he wailed. "Your FAMILY! And Gregor has done you no harm! None of us had!"

"Neither had Ajax."

Henry jerked around to Solovet, and when he took in the way she looked at him, he fully and truly understood that it was all over. He hadn't killed her before, but he had broken her. And now she was doing everything in her power to break him.

He looked back at Vikus, and for a moment, Henry believed he would actually slap him. But all he did was stare, with so much unbelieving pain that it was hard to bear. Then, with a firm tug, he ripped the commander crest off of Henry's chest.

"Take him away. Them both." Vikus turned; he trembled so hard that Solovet had to steady him. "Just take them out of my sight."

And so they did. The guards carried Henry and Thanatos out of the High Hall, along narrow passages, and then down deep under the city of Regalia; he didn't recognize the way at first, but he figured they wouldn't be taken anywhere but the dungeon. Henry finally recognized the path when a row of torches illuminated the narrow staircase leading down.

The guards dragged him along and tossed him onto a hard stone floor. One pinned him to the ground while the other seized his backpack and all his weapons. It was only when the guard dragged Mys out of Henry's sheath that he began protesting again, but then a second guard joined, and Henry wasn't strong enough to shake them.

Only seconds later, they released him and backed away. When Henry finally struggled to his feet and whipped around, the door was slammed shut in his face, and a key turned in a lock.

"Hey!" he screamed, banging his hands on the hard stone. "HEY!"

It was only then that a wave of belated panic overwhelmed him, making his head spin. Henry retched, struggling to breathe. He was enveloped by darkness, but he could see perfectly well, inside and out of the cell. And what he saw was that they left. The guards left, with his backpack and his weapons. And with—

". . . DEATH!"

Henry screamed. Over and over until his throat was sore and his fists hurt from banging on the unyielding stone. Until he sensed that he was all alone, for as far as his perception reached. Until he couldn't scream anymore. And then he screamed again.

But nobody came.